


Growing Season

by LittleUggie



Series: Pack of Strays [3]
Category: Hannibal Lecter Series - All Media Types
Genre: Animal Ears, Trans Character, Will's Dogs are People
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-12
Updated: 2017-11-12
Packaged: 2019-02-01 13:47:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12706233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleUggie/pseuds/LittleUggie
Summary: Jackson's story





	Growing Season

One of Jackson’s earliest memories is of standing barefoot in his grandmother’s garden, sunflowers towering over him. His interest in growing things and cooking were some of the few hobbies his family and pack approved of, especially as he got older. When he was a child, his oddities were passed off as a phase (our little tomboy). But around the age of 12, when it was obvious he was not suddenly going to take an interest in makeup and pretty dresses, they grew concerned. And then angry. When the pack alpha gave him the ultimatum of going to a ‘correctional’ camp or banishment, it was really no choice at all. 

The foster homes weren’t as bad as he feared. He was quiet, didn’t do drugs, or run around at night. For the most part he was left to his own devices. His foster families didn’t care that he wore baggy boys clothes. When he wanted to go get a job, they supported his choice, and even helped him set up a bank account. 

It was the loneliness that was the worst part. His old pack was the only local one, so the few families he stayed with were all human. They weren’t bad, they just didn’t make any effort to really get to know him. And they weren’t pack. 

He came of age and got his name legally changed. He graduated, and moved across the state, transferring his job to the first place they had an opening. He gets a small apartment and a car. He works, and reads, and cooks. He could truly live as himself for the first time in his life, and he was unbearably lonely. 

Ellie is the first lupine he meets after moving away from the town he grew up in. She is sharp and bright, all toothy grins and sarcastic comments. She is well liked by their co-workers. Especially the men, who she wraps around her little finger. She makes it her mission to become Jackson’s best friend. 

He doesn’t know why. He rarely speaks to her the first few times she sits with him at break. But she doesn’t seem to mind. She invites herself over to his apartment, and they watch bad movies and eat pizza. He feels like he has known her all his life. She knows about him. He is fairly certain of it, but she never brings it up, and neither does he. 

She tells him a lot about the guys she lives with. Harley, the marshmallow build like a grizzly bear, and Will the most unalpha-like alpha ever. She doesn’t talk about her life before coming to Wolf Trap. Neither does he. It doesn’t matter who they were before. It takes her a long time to convince him to come home with her. He doesn’t quite believe that they will be as laid back about him as she is. 

But eventually, he goes, and they are exactly as she says. They aren’t put off when he doesn’t talk. They all seem comfortable with silence. He feels more at home there than he has anywhere in his whole life. So when Ellie finds his lease renewal and pushes him to move in with them, he agrees. 

It is so easy. He never imagined being himself could be like this. He slowly takes over the majority of the cooking. Will always looks so tired when he gets back from work, and Harley could burn water. Ellie can cook reasonably well, but doesn’t like to. He is standing in the kitchen washing some lettuce when the idea occurs to him. He looks out the window and sees the perfect spot for a garden plot. 

He asks Will, who seems surprised that he is asking permission (he is such a strange alpha). He even goes with him to help him get the supplies he needs. It starts out as fairly small, 10x5. Enough for a few tomato and squash plants with some marigolds and zinnias to act as natural insect repellent. Every year after that, he expands it a little more, partially in response to the increase of the pack, and partially because he enjoys the challenge. 

When Zoe joins, she plants sunflowers that climb up the trellis they constructed. He stands beneath them in bare feet, and realizes somewhere along the way, he found a new family. 

Jackson did not realize what an ordeal becoming an ‘official’ pack would be. Honestly, he had never really thought of it before. They were a pack. That was obvious to all of them (except maybe Will, since he always seems confused whenever anyone refers to him as alpha). But for it to be legal, there were interviews and paperwork, and all sorts of stuff they had to go through. 

He understood the need for it. He had been in the system long enough to know that you couldn’t just adopt an underaged boy that you found on the side of the road. But privately he thought all this rigmarole was unnecessary. They were the only lupine pack around, what did they think they were going to do with the boy? Lupines were meant to live in packs. 

It is planting season when the social worker and governmental inspector come to the house. He is up to his elbows in dirt and compost when the woman in her neat suit comes to talk to him. He doesn’t look up from his task as he answers her questions. 

No, he has never been accused of a crime. No, he has never done drugs. Yes, he is a high school graduate and has a steady income. Yes, he thinks Will is a competent alpha and capable of leading a pack. He has for years. 

When she asks if he has any previous names, he pauses in what he is doing. It’s been so long since he’s thought about his birth name. He tells her. She looks briefly startled, but nods, scribbling on her clipboard. She gets to her last question. 

“Do you think this is a good environment for a child to grow up in?” 

He stands, brushing his hands off on his threadbare jeans. He looks at her fully for the first time. Beneath her pin-neat respectability and official titles, he thinks she really does want what is best for Winston. He smiles a little shyly at her, and surprised, she smiles back. It makes her look years younger. 

“I think any child would be lucky to grow up here.” 


End file.
